Edwards brushes off Bowyer, earns victory in Milwaukee

MOTOR SPORTSRookie Logano finishes second at Milwaukee Mile

Chronicle News Services

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, June 22, 2008

WEST ALLIS, WIS. — Carl Edwards decided not to do his trademark backflip in Victory Lane on Saturday night, choosing a more subdued celebration because of drag racer Scott Kalitta's death during the day.

Edwards also said the fact that he wasn't proud of the way he shoved Clint Bowyer aside to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the Milwaukee Mile contributed to his somber mood.

"Today, what happened to Mr. Kalitta, and the way I passed Clint, I just didn't feel like doing a backflip," Edwards said.

The sentiment honoring Kalitta seemed sincere, but Bowyer wasn't exactly buying Edwards' expression of remorse for the move that ended up winning the race.

"We got up to where we needed to be, and unfortunately it got taken from us," Bowyer said.

Joey Logano, who became the youngest winner in series history at Kentucky Speedway last weekend, went fender-to-fender with Brad Keselowski to take the lead with 79 laps to go and appeared to be in position for remarkable back-to-back wins.

But Logano was shuffled back to fourth on the final round of pit stops — rubbing fenders with Bowyer on pit road — setting up a showdown between Bowyer and Edwards.

Bowyer slipped past Edwards to take the lead with 39 laps to go.

But Edwards got Bowyer back after a restart, getting underneath him in turn 2 and knocking him sideways to take the lead with 25 to go.